BTOOOM! Episode 9: The Strongest Player

“Enemies are everywhere. The only person I can trust is Ryouta.” – Himiko

Summary:

Another player joins the Sakamoto Party although unknown to all of them, Date is one of the players who have already left the island but was brought back to the game because of some unknown reasons. To top all of that, he’s also one of those people who would do anything to gather the chips needed even if it means betrayal.

Another set of supplies were dropped and everyone in the island were after all of them. Through this, more characters emerged for the first time and some characters from the previous episodes surfaced again on the scene giving more explosions and more bim types revealed.

Impression:

You have no idea how impressed I am with this series’ manga because of all the words to read and mind you – all of those words, you have to read since they are all strategically awesome. The same with the anime, I am glad they manage to preserve the character’s inner thoughts as well and the way each of them lies because of it; although Himiko’s lies are quite noticeable. A lot has happened in this episode that I want to talk about so if I do miss something, please forgive me. XD

First off is this Date-sensei guy. Well, with what Shiki mentioned from the previous episode and with all those flashbacks seen with this guy’s face, it was already obvious on who this person is and what his motive is to the viewers. No, I don’t think showing his face before was a bad idea since you get to have more psychological fights between the characters but I doubt Sakamoto do notice it since he seems to be a little slow when it comes to this (remember the first time he was on the island and how it took him a lot of time to notice what kind of bim he has? LOL). So we can also assume that he doesn’t notice it at the moment but the word “doctor” does ring a bell in him and I don’t think Sakamoto is that careless to even tell Date how many bims they already have now. Well, Himiko already has a character that wouldn’t believe in other people so she does usually suspect anyone who she would just encounter. More of her suspicions were added when Date suddenly tried to kill her and the woman she was fighting against and pretended that he actually saved her.

Next stop would be Himiko and Sakamoto. Well, duh, yes I’ll talk about them after what happened. LOL Well, no, this time it’s not the case of love story but the way they talked about BTOOOM! after learning what kind of bims Date has. The way they talked about traps of those types of bims were just cute and the way Sakamoto advices Himiko, is the same. You know, you seldom find players of a certain game that catches up to your train of thought. This is usually why I want to play online games with people I knew before hand then find people in the game that can help further. So even if we are outside the game, we can still discuss some things out of the game itself. So basically, what I’m trying to say is, Himiko and Sakamoto do have almost the same train of thought and because of Himiko’s experience playing with Sakamoto’s team on the game, she has become a little closer to the guy’s abilities (well, only in the game).

Then we go to Taira. Psychologically, he has already been affected by what is happening around him. Being always left out while the others go on a hunt to find people, food and supplies, etc. This is also what Taira has been saying from the previous episodes. If you are alone, you get to expect a lot of things, think of a lot of things and in the process, doubting a lot of things. So, yeah, I do pity Taira but in a sense, Sakamoto can’t bring him anywhere with an injured leg and hand and plus, he is poisoned to the bones. Not good for his health or he will just drag the team down at crucial moments (I also do find homer type bims pretty much useless on most cases).

The chase and Sakamoto’s encounter with the glasses dude. Oh man, oh man, did I just have chills while watching this? If the animation was a little better (in terms of color and realistic motion), it could have been an unforgettable bomb fight of my life. Yes, seriously. Better action than Bomberman. XD Both Sakamoto and Oda sure have an almost the same level of ability when it comes to BTOOOM! I don’t know about Oda but by the way he has been encountering Sakamoto and the way he would set his traps like he knows what would happen, is just too good to be true. Well, not to mention that the way Sakamoto uses other means to counter his counters were also too good to be true. To be honest, in this series, you might have to look forward to these two. Oda holds a very good key (yes, I am spoiling you). Well, this is also one good thing: more in-depth character analysis and revelations and more episodes to come. HOHOHO

One thing I have liked on the fight between Himiko and the other woman. Himiko is starting to realize that he do feel something for Sakamoto although she keeps on denying it. Well, I can’t blame her. He met him in this game, married him in this game, and he became a player in this game that she would be comfortable with. Plus, he met him in real life in another game (lol) and then was saved by him a couple of times already. Who wouldn’t fall, really?